Family study of primary affective disorders has reached the stage of completed data collection. Schizoaffective patients have the highest proportion of illness in relatives, followed by Bipolar patients (types I and II), and then Unipolar patients. A significant rate of illness in spouses of patients, implying assortative mating, is present. Genetic analyses applied to these pedigrees have failed to identify a homogeneous sub-group with a common mode of transmission. Theoretical studies of the power of single locus pedigree analysis methods using simulation techniques are ongoing. Analysis of genetic transmission of activity of enzymes of catecholamine metabolism revealed codominant autosomal single locus transmission as most likely for both catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH), whereas monoamine oxidase activity was not well accounted for by either X-chromosome or single locus transmission. Cell culture studies reveal a genetic component in aging processes at the cellular level, which appear to be of general significance in the aging process. Genetic analyses of patients in whom cerebrospinal fluid (CF) metabolites have been studied revealed that patients with positive family history of alcoholism or sociopathy have significantly lower baseline levels of homovanillic acid (HVA), 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyglycol (MHPG), and norepinephrine (NE).